This pioneer settler of the country immediately surrounding Fossil Post office one of the leading stockmen of the region was born in Janesville, Wisconsin on April 1, 1842 the son of William and Margaret (Clark) Lewis, the father being a son of William Lewis, a native of Spain who later became a resident of Ireland where he died at a hale old age. The father of Mr. Lewis lived all of his life as an active and industrious resident of Ireland at his burial at Tepority receiving the funeral honors of a large extent of country. His wife a daughter of William and Margaret (Kelly) Clark both natives of Ireland came to Canada after her husband’s death, where here death occurred at the age of seventy-four years in 1888/ Not long did our subject tarry at home in his youth for at the age of fourteen years he adopted a maritime life on the Great Lakes, continuing this for eight years, when he came west to Colorado, there engaging in freighting from Fort Laramie, continuing this for two years, his next employment being the conducting of a saloon and a brewery at Evanston, Wyoming, in which he was prosperously engaged for seventeen years, the date of his arrival at Evanston being 1864. Forecasting the tremendous possibilities of wealth awaiting the individuals who should take the initiative in covering the succulent plains and valleys with herds of cattle in 1885. Mr. Lewis located at Fossil at his present location, being the first settler to there establish a home. Here his earnest and unremitting endeavors have been duly prospered, his landed estate of 640 acres showing a high degree of development and improvement and manifesting the discriminating care and skill that have been bestowed upon it. He is held in high esteem by an unusually wide range of acquaintance who value him not only for his sagacity and practical wisdom but also for the many qualities of manliness and worth which he has ever shown, being public spirited to a high degree, and manifesting his interest in all matters affecting the general weal as an active member of the Democratic party, with which he has long been affiliated. In 1870 occurred the wedding ceremonies of Mr. Lewis and Miss Susannah Jones, who is a native of Wales and the daughter of Lewis and Susannah (Davis) Jones, who emigrated from their native land in 1865 and thereafter conducting agricultural operations in the Cache Valley of Utah until 1871 when they removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where was their home until they closed their eyes in death. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are: Kate, Margaret, Susannah, Sarah, William, John, Richard, deceased and Nellie. History lives in the men who make it and the people are thus the first study not only as they appear in public, but more so as they are found in private life and in their home relations and judged by this unerring criterion, Mr. Lewis stands out as one of the strong characters of a truly pioneer era.
